Pats vs Pat

Patrick Mahomes' mother has said of him that, because his father was a major league baseball player, and he grew up playing catch with the likes of A-Rod, he doesn't get too excited about anything. This was in an SI article I read about him that was very revealing. https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/05/patrick-mahomes-kansas-city-chiefs-high-school-texas-tech-parents-andy-reid

She also said that when they took him to Disneyland and places that usually impressed little kids, "He didn't get too excited there either," or something to that effect.

That sounds a lot like the Patriots' mantra, "Not too high, not too low." When you combine it with extraordinary talent, it's a recipe for success. Forget that he is a rookie on a big stage. He is not likely to get rattled and throw the game away (literally and figuratively).

One other thing: the article said that he almost quit football growing up in Tyler, Texas, because the coach wouldn't let him play quarterback. That suggests someone who knows his own mind and is willing to give up a lot to get what he wants. He was also a very good baseball and basketball player, so he thought he might concentrate on those sports.

Growing up in Mississippi, I played a little bit of junior high and high school football, and I know something about quitting the football team. In Meridian, Miss., you could not quit without having a one-on-one meeting with our head coach, whose nickname was "Dawg." As I recall, he had been a guard at Alabama and he was tough, really tough. If he didn't like the way you were blocking on the practice field, he would get down, without pads, and go one-on-one with you, right then and there. I had to quit the team to get a job and help support my family, so I had to have that meeting with Dawg. He wasn't too hard on me but it wasn't a pleasant encounter and I suspect Mahomes would have had to go through something similar to quit the Tyler East squad.


Why didn't he quit football? According to the SI article, it was because no one went to the baseball and basketball games and everyone went to football games. He didn't want to excel without an audience! That suggests someone who knows he is talented and wants to be appreciated for it.

All of this and his teammates on the Chiefs say he is quiet and modest!

Why am I going on and on about Mahomes? Well, the question before the Patriots is, "How do you beat somebody like that?" And make no mistake about it: that is who they have to beat, not the Chiefs. They are a very good team, but the Pats just beat a very good team by flummoxing their very good quarterback. Mahomes is more than "very good," he is a transcendent talent and the Pats will lose if they don't figure him out.

When I posted about the Chargers and the Pats (a post I should now dub "Charge(rs) Account Canceled"), I realized something about football: just about everybody was predicting the outcome of the game before it happened. When I wrote the blog, I started describing what I thought our guys needed to do to win the game. I would much rather do that for many reasons. The main one is that I don't want to predict a Patriot loss! If I did, my ego would be rooting against them because I would want to be right. However, my heart would be with the B/B gang, and I would spend the whole game conflicted.

Prediction, no matter how much data you have from the past, is just a guess anyway. Each game is unique and there are elements to it that elude predictive analysis. It's fun, but not very realistic.

In my next post, then, I will share what I would do if I were Bill B.